Google AI Mode, one year in Italy: what it is, how to use it, and which sources it picks when it answers
AI Mode is the Google Search tab for long questions, available in Italian since October 8, 2025. What it is, how to use it, which sources it picks across 300 Italian-language answers measured with Searchable, and what changes for a brand, as ads in AI Mode reach ten more countries but not Italy yet.
In brief
- AI Mode is the Google Search tab for long, complex questions. It has been available in Italian since October 8, 2025, it requires no subscription, and according to Google it has more than a billion monthly users worldwide.
- Across 300 Italian-language answers about cars and motorcycles, AI Mode uses an average of 4.4 sources per answer and cites social media far less than AI Overviews: YouTube appears in 15.1% of answers, compared with 33.9%.
- Showing up requires no special optimization, but Search Console does not separate AI Mode traffic from regular traffic. Ads inside AI Mode have reached ten more countries; Italy does not have a date yet.
It has been a year since AI Mode started speaking Italian. On October 28, 2026, Google extended ads inside AI Mode to ten new countries, from Australia to Canada and India, and Italy is not among them for now. It is a good moment to look at what Google’s AI-powered search mode is today, how it works, and above all which sources it picks when it answers. To measure that, we looked at 300 AI Mode answers in Italian.
Index
What Google AI Mode is
AI Mode is the Google Search tab built for long questions, the kind that used to take several searches: comparing two products, getting to grips with a new topic, weighing pros and cons. Instead of a list of results, it gives an answer written by AI, with links to the pages it draws on, and lets you keep going with follow-up questions. You can ask by typing, by voice, with a photo, with a PDF, or with the address of a web page.
In Italy and in Italian, AI Mode has been available since October 8, 2025. According to Google, queries in AI Mode are on average three times longer than a traditional search, and in June 2026 the company reported more than a billion monthly active users worldwide.
How to use AI Mode in Italy
There are three ways in: the address google.com/ai, the AI Mode tab below the search bar on google.com, and the button on the home screen of the Google app. Searches are saved in the AI Mode history, where you can pick up a conversation or delete it.
Using it requires no subscription. Only the most powerful model, Gemini 4 Argon, is paid: it is reserved for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers and comes with daily limits. For most questions, the Auto and Fast models, available to everyone, are enough.
How it builds its answers
Google calls the technique query fan-out. AI Mode breaks the question into subtopics, runs several searches at once across different sources, and then brings the results together into a single answer. When it is not confident enough in the quality, it skips the answer and shows a set of links instead.
Google itself writes that AI Mode “doesn’t always get it right”: it can misinterpret web content or miss context, which is why Google advises checking important information across several sources. For a brand, the consequence is concrete: what a reader learns about a product is an AI-made summary, built from pages the company does not always control.
AI Mode vs. AI Overviews: what’s the difference
AI Overviews are the summary that appears above the regular results, and only for some searches. AI Mode is a separate tab, where the conversation continues with more questions. Google notes that the two features may use different techniques and models, so answers and links change from one to the other. AI Overviews, moreover, appear only when Google considers them useful, while AI Mode tries to answer every question and shows only links when it is not confident.
Which sources it picks: data from 300 answers
With Searchable, we track every day how AI platforms answer Italian-language questions about cars and motorcycles for Quotidiano Motori, the Italian online motoring daily we run. Over the last 30 days, AI Mode gave 300 answers with 1,323 sources, or 4.4 sources per answer. Over the same period, AI Overviews used 5.1 per answer, and ChatGPT reaches almost 26.
The sharpest difference is in social media. YouTube appears in 15.1% of AI Mode answers and in 33.9% of AI Overviews; Facebook in 13.4% versus 33.2%. In AI Mode, the top domain is a news outlet, sky.it, present in 19.8% of answers, while in AI Overviews the top two spots belong to YouTube and Facebook. Italian government websites on the gov.it domain, including ACI, ENAC, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, appear in 12.8% of AI Mode answers.
Quotidiano Motori is the fifth most used domain in AI Mode, appearing in 11.7% of answers, ahead of every other outlet specializing in cars and motorcycles. In AI Overviews it ranks tenth, at 7.7%. The same site, with the same pages, holds two different positions in two features of the same Google Search. These figures cover a single industry and do not apply to every market, but they are enough to show that measuring visibility only in AI Overviews, or only in the classic results, gives half the picture.
What changes for a brand
To appear in AI Mode, Google sets no additional requirements beyond SEO: the content only needs to be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet. No files, markup, or structured data made specifically for AI are needed. What counts is content in text form, structured data that matches what readers see, and, for those who sell, up-to-date information in Merchant Center and the Business Profile.
Measuring is harder. In Search Console, clicks and impressions from AI Mode are counted under the “Web” search type, together with those from regular results, with no separate entry. To know how much AI Mode matters, you have to look at the answers, question by question. Anyone who does not want their pages to show up in answers has the usual controls, nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex, but they also apply to the snippet in regular results.
Then there is advertising. In the United States, ads in AI Mode are already live, and on May 20, 2026, Google introduced two test formats built with Gemini. After the ten countries added in October, Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom are next, in the fourth quarter. According to Google, inside AI Mode the click-through rate on sponsored products is already similar to that on regular products: it is the company’s own figure, and it cannot be verified from the outside. For an Italian brand, now is the time to understand how AI Mode describes it, before ad space next to that description goes on sale.
Frequently asked questions
AI Overviews are a summary that appears above the regular results, only for some searches. AI Mode is a separate Google Search tab built for long questions, where you can keep going with follow-up questions. The two features may use different models, so answers and sources change: across the Italian-language questions about cars and motorcycles measured with Searchable, AI Mode uses 4.4 sources per answer and AI Overviews 5.1.
Yes. AI Mode can be used without a subscription from google.com/ai, from the AI Mode tab on google.com, and from the Google app. Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can also choose the most powerful model, Gemini 4 Argon, with daily usage limits.
Google has not given a date. On October 28, 2026, it extended ads in AI Mode to Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Singapore, and announced Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom for the fourth quarter of 2026. Italy is on neither list.
